Win some, Lose some
by Spider9x
Summary: Because even the strongest nen users are only human; the members of the Genei Ryodan are no exception.
1. Shalnark: Health problems

**Win some, Lose some**

**Summary:** Because even the strongest nen users are only human; the members of the Genei Ryodan are no exception.

**Shalnark: Health problems**

The sandy hair bishounen woke up with a pounding head. He could feel every freaking single surge of blood his beating heart sent to his head. A quick calculation told him that it was seventy per minute.

The rate that all sportsmen wished to achieve but Shalnark was no ordinary sportsman. The young man maintained his position of sitting on the ground with his back against the wall for a few seconds, assessing the headache, before leaping agilely up onto his feet.

A miscalculation.

His head jarred painfully from the impact as his feet hit the ground silently. Almost immediately, a dizzy spell lasting for a few seconds stole his sight and threatened to throw him off balance despite him being stationary.

The burst of random white spots which clouded his vision were of different sizes and shrunk rapidly, only to be replaced by yet another and he had to be careful not to focus on any circle or risk a painful fall, flat on his face, courtesy of a past experience.

Shalnark's vision cleared and he glanced at his surroundings, easily picking up Machi's suspicious gaze which she did not bother to conceal. She was always one of the first to rouse in the Genei Ryodan, second only to Danchou or at times, Shalnark himself.

Around them in the hideout, everyone remained asleep. It was as silent as a tomb, except during Phink's sudden bouts snoring. Shalnark was thankful that he was not a light sleeper, as Phink's chainsaw imitation started abruptly.

As usual, Shalnark took the initiative in making morning greetings, the most awkward time of the day. A 'good morning' was too formal, besides Machi had seen and was most probably trying to figure out his earlier actions. He needed to say something which would enlighten her but not sound like he was whining or close to dying from the pain.

"Want some coffee?" He called out to the seamstress.

Yes, a good strong cup of well brewed coffee was exactly what Shalnark needed to sooth his head and ease the soreness. Machi regarded him with her icy blue eyes before shaking her head and resuming the task of tying her nen threads. These ready made accessories were especially convenient and spelt instant death for all who got caught in any of the deadly and invincible nooses.

Shalnark checked his cell phone cum weapon briefly before making his way out of the hideout and towards town. There was no news from Hisoka, who was on the hunt for a nen remover and also the only known person in contact with Kuroro. And in a way, no news meant good news. As long as Kuroro was alive, the Genei Ryodan would maintain it's status quo.

Kuroro had always stressed that he was not the head of the spiders, but a limb. Thus even if he were to die, the spider still lived.

However, from what Shalnark could observe, most of the members were too influenced by Kuroro and more dependent on the man then it appeared; their respect for him was a large part of the reason why this group of powerful nen-users stayed together for all these years. Shalnark was sure many would not react well to being under a new Danchou. Still, as far as he could tell, Feitan was the only suitable candidate to lead the spiders should anything happen to Kuroro. The other guys were either too silent or lacked maturity. Phink's strange sense of humour was just unfitting and Feitan was the strongest, after all. Now, if only the little guy was taller... A very big and fat 'if'only', that was.

Shalnark chuckled to himself and then winced suddenly as he became conscious of his pounding head again. He increased his pace, anxious for a cup of all healing dark coffee.

The cloudless sky was beginning to light up a pale blue as he reached the only cafe in town which was bustling with activity.

Alas, Genei Ryodan or not, rich or poor, the waiting time of fifteen minutes for any order applied to all people. That was not including the time spent queuing, amidst impatient people grabbing breakfast before rushing off to work. In the already packed waiting area, the lady behind him just had to do a further invasion of personal space by reading her newspaper. Shalnark resigned himself to having his hair smell like ink for the rest of the day as the newspaper made contact with the back of his head for the twentieth time that minute.

Despite having decided that a cup of coffee was not worth activating his nen over, Shalnark couldn't help wondering why he even bothered going through all these procedures like a normal person.

The reasons were painfully obvious; he suffered from splitting headaches just like the common folks and found the aroma of coffee irresistible, as did more than half the world population. Life couldn't get more ordinary even for a member of the infamous and powerful phantom brigade.

Shalnark felt his trusty cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He had forgotten to disable the daily alarm in his hurry to get to the cafe. A few heads turned as he brought out his phone. The devil design sure was attention seeking, even without any additional blings.

As if on cue, Shalnark's headache intensified and he resisted the desire to go into auto mode until he received his coffee. Muscle aches and cramps he could endure, but this headache was a real killer. There was no obvious trigger that he could identify since he led such an unhealthy lifestyle. Lack of sleep, stress, and of course, harmful radiation from his hand phone. Not to the extent of being carcinogenic, Shalnark believed, though there were contrasting studies regarding that and he had not much choice but to stay on the optimistic side. Grudgingly.

Don't get him started on the fertility problems which stem from having too much harmful radiation from mobile phones due to the amount of time they are placed in the pockets. The effects of such prolonged close proximity between the phone and the male reproductive organ had Shalnark holding the phone in his hands the entire time for a month straight, but he had resumed the nasty habit once again in the past few weeks for the sake of typing on his laptop.

Not that the laptop was doing his reproductive organ much good. In fact more studies have affirmed that the heat emitted from a laptop resulted in erectile problems due to the acclimatization to the increased temperature. There's a reason why those things hang outside the male human body, you know.

Perhaps he should have made his weapon a game boy, but he would have gotten a cell phone and a laptop either way so that wasn't so much of a valid point.

Besides, fertility issues were the least of the problems on Shalnark's mind since he was happily single and had no intention of changing his martial status any time soon. Not that he had a suitable girl in mind anyway. He tried not to think about why that was the case.

_Live with it. _Shalnark advised and gave himself a mental pat on the back for the umpteenth time as the queue progressed slowly.

**~o~**

**A/N: **Hello! This will be a collection of short stories involving one or two members of the Genei Ryodan in each chapter and can be considered an expansion of my first two HxH stories -Solemn Pastimes and Of Samurai, Ninja, Assassins and Pirates which featured Hisoka, Shizuku and Franklin. The main inspiration was to write about the mundane and not-so-glam parts of the spiders lives. After all, Togashi mostly depicted them wasting time sitting on crates or dishing out destruction under Kuroro's orders and I'd like to believe that such an extraordinary group of people are in a way, similar to ordinary nen-less humans XD

Please review to let me know how you felt about this chapter and thanks for reading!


	2. Pakunoda: Fashion

**Win some Lose some**

**Summary: **Even with special nen abilities, it was a real challenge to protect and keep her blouse free from stains.

**Pakunoda: Fashion**

For a long time, she had been dressing like a proper business woman, white long sleeve button up and a coat with a matching pencil skirt. Sure, the skirt was a little on the short side and showed off most of her legs, a real pain when it got chilly some days, but all cloth and no skin makes any woman a dull one and so she lived with it.

That was until Shizuku accidentally flicked Deme-chan in Pakunoda's direction while it's mouth was still dripping with blood from the latest kill, and they couldn't get access to a washing machine in time.

"Shizuku san, I would appreciate it if you could kindly tell Deme-chan to keep the liquid in too, not just the solid."

Shizuku apologised profusely and promised that she would remember the next time. However with the last apology barely out of her mouth, Shizuku swung her vacuum cleaner smoothly to assault a screaming man who was running past, adding more splatters to Pakunoda's white blouse which was now most artistically decorated with dark, expanding red dots.

Pakunoda made it a point to stay away from the close range fighters in the future while fighting, and wear her coat if possible, to hell with the heat. The blood stains didn't show up as well on dark coloured materials after all.

Blood stains were inevitable when things got violent but Pakunoda made her kills from a distance, relying on her perfect eyesight and pistol. Things seldom got so messy unless she moved too close to certain members while they were in action. Shizuku had seemed innocent enough before that incident, but not anymore.

There was no anger or sadness when she realised that there was only so much bleach, detergent and a washing machine could do to remove the blood stains after leaving them on the fabric for a few weeks. She was just a little annoyed, a wee bit. Enough to request that Uvogin wreck the laundry shop, to which he gladly complied.

So that spelt the downfall of Pakunoda's first, beautiful, snow white blouse.

She brought out another from the spiders' portable storage and hoped fervently that it would last. For that was the last of her supplies and she really didn't have the time to go shopping for more.

Phinks dashed her hopes and received two tight slaps on both cheeks as a result when he dripped curry on her new blouse a few days later. Drip was a nice way of putting it.

Harsh, you might think. If it had been Kuroro who had committed the act somehow, by tripping over a rat while holding onto a bowl of curry thus spilling it onto her chest, Pakunoda would have accepted his apologies and blamed it on her own bad luck.

Phinks, on the other hand, had been sitting on the ground just beside the shaky old couch the ladies were sharing, watching some variety show which was not even remotely funny on the stolen television. They were having curry and bread for dinner.

At the most random moment when Pakunoda was about to bite into her curry soaked bread, Phinks turned to her, pointing excitedly at the television screen and making strange noise that sounded like laughter being held back due to a full mouth and blocked nose. (A/n: You'll get what I mean if you try it out, go on.)

The next thing Pakunoda knew, Phinks, whose head happened to be at her chest area, had burst out laughing and forcefully released the contents in his mouth as the laugh erupted. Let's just say that he had taken a pretty big mouthful of curry with bits of potato. Some came out from his nose too.

In comparison to Kuroro's most probable scenario should he ever spill curry on Pakunoda, what Phinks had done to ruin her last blouse was unforgivable.

"I was just trying to get them to see something interesting on tv!" he was heard complaining to Feitan after that, nursing his smarting cheeks.

Terrible luck indeed, for both Pakunoda and Phinks.

-o-

She thought she looked kind of... sexy in her new outfit. Not in an innocent way, definitely, but not too bitchy either. Wearing just her old skirt and figure hugging jacket with nothing beneath the blazer, Pakunoda walked one testing round around the hideout, making sure that everyone got a glimpse of her new get-up.

Most of the guys barely noticed, or pretended not to. Hisoka wasn't there, which she was extremely thankful for. Shalnark examined her once through from top to toe and gave his approval before turning back to his geeky hand phone.

Pakunoda served as the main liaison for the brigade and it was her responsibility to look decent. Decent enough to be taken seriously yet not overly formal lest the other party felt pressured. As for the sensual part, well, those middle aged bastards liked to be intimidated in that way. It was none of her concern whether they died of a nosebleed or stroke as long as they did all that after honouring the deals made.

From that day onwards, Phinks shifted his vision lower and no longer stared at her nose while they spoke. That was an improvement, sort of. As long as he kept his hands and thoughts to himself.

Still, the real reason for Pakunoda's courage and motivation to make away with her white blouse was really Kuroro's reaction.

He was the first person she had encountered after stepping out from the make shift toilet.

As Pakunoda blushed, stuttered and tried to explain, Kuroro smiled gently and looked at her in the eye.

"You look great."

-o-

**A/N: **Alright, a short chapter, I'm not one to hit more than 1.5k words. I wanted to write about Kuroro but Paku came out instead. Was just speaking to a friend yesterday about how the Germany midfielder Özil looks like Paku! LOL I laughed for five minute straight when I first saw him on television.

Right um, that was just me going crazy. Thanks so much for the reviews, faves and alerts! Love you guys =D


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